A “smiling” nurse offered to take photographs of a baby soon after murdering her on the fourth attempt, a court has heard.
Lucy Letby, 33, is accused of harming the newborn by injecting air into her feeding tube and bloodstream before she died at the Countess of Chester hospital on 23 October 2015.
Prosecutors allege that Letby tried four times to kill the infant, who weighed only 2lb 2oz when she was born 10 weeks premature in August 2015.
Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others between June 2015 and June 2016 at the neo-natal unit where she worked.
Jurors at Manchester crown court were on Wednesday read a statement by the mother of one of the babies allegedly killed by the nurse.
The jury heard how the baby, who can only be named as Child I, had initially been unwell owing to her prematurity but that her mother felt she was well enough to go home when she was about six weeks old.
“I started to notice that she was looking different,” she said. “She was looking around the room now, taking it all in. I was able to sit her on my knee. I remember looking at her and thinking ‘We are going home’. She looked like a full-term baby. She didn’t look frail or small.”
She recalled that around this time she was allowed to bathe her daughter for the first time and that Letby helped prepare the bath. She said: “I was so pleased to be able to bathe her. [Child I] was obviously enjoying it because she was smiling. Lucy even offered to take some photos using my mobile, which I agreed to.”
The mother said Letby “always appeared reserved” compared with other nurses and “didn’t really interact with parents”.
The nurse is accused of making her first attempt to kill Child I during a day shift on 30 September, before striking again three times the following month.
Child I’s mother said she was called at home in the early hours of 23 October and told she and her partner needed to go to the hospital immediately.
On their arrival she saw Letby with two other medics trying to resuscitate their daughter. She asked how long they had been doing this and the consultant, Dr John Gibbs, said 20 minutes.
“I remember thinking they can’t keep doing it. I said to Dr Gibbs ‘You can’t do any more’,” she said.
After Child I was pronounced dead, her parents were moved to a private room at visiting time. They then agreed to bathe their daughter’s body.
She said: “Lucy brought the bath in. She said she could come in and take some photos which we could keep. While we were bathing her, Lucy came back in. She was smiling and kept going on about how she was present at the first bath and how [Child I] had loved it.
“I wished she would just stop talking. Eventually she realised and stopped. It was not something we wanted to hear. I remember it was Lucy who packaged up [Child I’s] belongings to go home.”
The trial continues.
